Connectors, or connector jacks, are adapted to receive plugs for the interconnection of telecommunication cables and equipment, a good example thereof being connectors and plugs which conform to the ubiquitous RJ-45 standard. As known in the art, as the plug is inserted into the connector a series of terminal contacts exposed along an edge of the plug come into contact with a corresponding series of contact elements disposed in the connector housing. Each of the contact elements typically forms a portion of a rigid tine manufactured from a conductive material such as nickel or gold plated steel or the like. The individual tines are in turn mounted in an isolating support and include a bendable portion such that, as the terminal contacts come into contact with the contact elements the contact elements are retracted, while at the same bringing a countering force to bear to improve the interconnection.
As transmission bandwidths and transfer rates increase in data communication systems, compensation for crosstalk noise becomes increasingly important. As wiring and cabling structures and configurations are improved to satisfy the low noise requirements of these data transfer technologies, connectors terminating such transfer lines must also meet the same requirements.
Connectors conforming to the well-known RJ-45 standards are good examples of connectors being subject to crosstalk noise (NEXT: Near End Crosstalk, FEXT: Far End Crosstalk) between adjacent conductor pairs, as conductor pairs (usually four pairs) within such connectors are not symmetrically configured for all pair combinations. In order to fully compensate for common and differential mode crosstalk noise arising in signals transferred through such a plug/connector interface, in other words, for the above connector to operate in an optimal balanced mode, reactances between all conductors of each pair must be equal. Presently, pairs identified by the pins 3-6 and 4-5 are typically well balanced in prior art plugs and connectors, providing adequate compensation for common and differential mode noise between these pairs. On the other hand, the capacitive couplings between the pairs 1-2 and 3-6 and the pairs 3-6 and 7-8 are not equal for all conductors, which gives rise to, among others, mode conversion noise or crosstalk between the pairs (e.g. differential mode to common mode NEXT and vice-versa), a significant problem when attempting to comply with increasingly demanding industry standards.
The prior art reveals a variety of compensation networks and methods for mode conversion noise or crosstalk between pairs. However, one drawback of these prior art networks is that the compensating elements, be they inductive or capacitive, are located away from the point of contact between the terminal contacts of the plug and the contact elements of the connector.